I have an agile 300 Prestige CSB. It plays absolutley incredible. The ebony fboard is so smooth that I constantly "overslide". abalone inlays look as 3 dimensional as a hologram and sparkle as if they were backlit with green, blue and purple LED's...even in the dark. In 20+ yrs. of playing, I have never owned, but have played plenty of, high-end guitars. The Agile reviews are spot-on. A little buzz on the low E, the pups are more than adequate, maybe a speck of red overspray in the binding, but overall they're beautiful.. a tank of a guitar that playes better than high-end Epi's and as good as low-end Gibbies.

Sorry, coming late to this discussion, but wanted to put in another mention of Heritage. This company was created by the Gibson employees who were sacked when Gibson moved from Kalamazoo to Tennessee; they bought part of the old Gibson factory. So the guitars are made by people who have been making Gibsons for 40 years, in the same place, but mostly by hand instead of with CNC routers and such. So it's not even fair to call them knockoffs--they're pretty much originals. They've got a big range of archtops and various LP styles.

I'm visiting family near a store with a big supply of these, and spent a while today playing them and checking them out, and I've gotta say they pretty well blew me away. The quality is great, and at the Custom level, you're getting some great stuff--gold-plated appointments, nitrocellulose lacquer, Seymour Duncan buckers, real MOP inlay, great bindings, beautiful woods. The sound is great, as good or better than any LP I've heard. And for under $2,000. I've played some good Epis, but they always feel like at best they're really good knockoffs, but never better than the original. Heritage feels better than the original.

It's unlikely that I'll be able to resist going back there tomorrow to buy a Custom tobacco burst that I played today.

When i was at MF buying my new amp last week i spotted a wine red Elitist LP Custom on the wall. it was being sold for $679 because it was missing a volume knob.

i suspect it had more issues than that but it was unmarred as far as i could see and the neck seemed true also. i suspect that it had electronic issues because they would only sell it as is and would only allow you to exchange it for something else ($679) if you wanted to return it.

Twisted - electronics issues are easy to solve. Still, $675 for an Elistist that was potentially damaged? Why not just get a $400 Epi Standard and swap pups, electonics, and tuner $150?

Jester - I hear ya on the Heritage. Of course, given their price tag, I wouldn't lump them into this discussion.

Speaking of price... what about the ESP 1000 series? They are LP-styled guitars with premium equipment Duncans, Tonepros, etc) and look pretty cool. My only issue is the $750 for a new one... For $750 I can get a Gibson Studio...

Oh, and while not technically an LP style guiter, the Schecter C1 Artist Series - why the heck don't those sell better? Seems like they are giving them away.